Proposal for a hybrid clock system consisting of passive and active optical clocks and a fully stabilized microcomb

Yu D, Vollmer F, Del'Haye P, Zhang S (2023)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2023

Journal

Optics Express Optical Society of America

Book Volume: 31

Pages Range: 6228-6240

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1364/OE.482722

Abstract

Optical atomic clocks produce highly stable frequency standards and frequency combs bridge clock frequencies with hundreds of terahertz difference. In this paper, we propose a hybrid clock scheme, where a light source pumps an active optical clock through a microresonator-based nonlinear third harmonic process, serves as a passive optical clock via indirectly locking its frequency to an atomic transition, and drives a chip-scale microcomb whose mode spacing is stabilized using the active optical clock. The operation of the whole hybrid system is investigated through simulation analysis. The numerical results show: (i) The short-term frequency stability of the passive optical clock follows an Allan deviation of σy(τ) = 9.3 × 10−14τ−1/2 with the averaging time τ, limited by the population fluctuations of interrogated atoms. (ii) The frequency stability of the active optical clock reaches σy(τ) = 6.2 × 10−15τ−1/2, which is close to the quantum noise limit. (iii) The mode spacing of the stabilized microcomb has a shot-noise-limited Allan deviation of σy(τ) = 1.9 × 10−11τ−1/2. Our hybrid scheme may be realized using recently developed technologies in (micro)photonics and atomic physics, paving the way towards on-chip optical frequency comparison, synthesis, and synchronization.

Authors with CRIS profile

Pascal Del'Haye Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik (Optik)

Involved external institutions

National Time Service Center (NTSC) / 国家授时中心 CN China (CN) University of Exeter GB United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Yu, D., Vollmer, F., Del'Haye, P., & Zhang, S. (2023). Proposal for a hybrid clock system consisting of passive and active optical clocks and a fully stabilized microcomb. Optics Express, 31(4), 6228-6240. https://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.482722

MLA:

Yu, Deshui, et al. "Proposal for a hybrid clock system consisting of passive and active optical clocks and a fully stabilized microcomb." Optics Express 31.4 (2023): 6228-6240.

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